Amazon has updated the options for making money using Alexa Skills. Amazon Pay for Alexa Skills can be used to set up simple voice purchasing flow to sell goods or services, and there's a developer angle too. It is now generally available to UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and France based merchants and developers as well as in the US.

The general way it works is that if you sell goods or services through an Alexa skill, a customer can complete the purchase without having to leave the voice experience to enter credit card or shipping address details. The merchant links their Amazon Pay account with their Alexa skill in Seller Central. Amazon Pay integrates with existing CRM and order management solutions, so merchants can manage their sales as part of the existing process.

For developers, another way the new option works is that you can sell consumables in their Alexa skills in the US with in-skill purchasing. A consumable is an in-skill product that customers can purchase, use, and then purchase again. The example given is that of a player of a game who's stuck. You could offer a trivia skill that gives the player a set of hints, so that they can move on with the game or quiz. One they've run out of hints, they can buy another set of hints. Another example given from the way the feature has been used in the beta is of an online hypnotherapy course where customers can buy a bundle of 10 hypnotherapy sessions from a catalog of 70+ therapies. Once the customer has used up all 10, they have the option to purchase a new bundle.

It is, of course, also possible to make money through Alexa Developer Rewards. Developer Rewards are cash payments paid directly to developers who create popular Alexa skills. Skills are third-party apps that extend and expand what Alexa can do. Developer Rewards were originally only available to developers of game skills, but since then has been expanded to include Education & Reference, Food & Drink, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Music & Audio, and Productivity, Games and Kids. The scheme is in some ways an incentive to create skills in areas where there's less chance to make money from in-skill purchases or paid subscriptions.

The more sobering thing to remember is that while Amazon lists more than 50,000 Alexa skills, 14% of Alexa users don't use any of the available skills, and just over half stick with fewer than three.